Biden suspends US steel tariffs on Ukraine for a year

US President Joe Biden has declared that for one year, a 25% duty on steel and steel products imported from Ukraine will be lifted.

Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein and Republican Senator Patrick Toomey wrote to Biden in April, encouraging him to eliminate the tax to assist the Ukrainian economy. In early May, the US Commerce Department announced that the Biden administration will postpone 232 duties on Ukrainian steel for a year.

Biden said in a statement on Friday that he has "determined to suspend the tariffs set forth in Proclamation 9705 for the import of steel articles and derivative steel articles from Ukraine for 1 year," adding that the US secretary of commerce "shall monitor the situation in the domestic steel industry and developments in Ukraine’s steel industry and inform me of any need to terminate or extend this suspension." 

The president highlighted that Ukraine accounted for less than 1% of US imports in 2021 and anticipated that owing to Russia's special military operation, Ukraine's steel output and steel imports to the US would be much lower.

As part of a national security program to strengthen US industrial production capacity, the Trump administration put 25% tariffs in 2018 on specific steel from a variety of countries, including Ukraine.